28th August 2009
Those of us who are used to buying novels to see us through the summer holidays need not do that this summer that is if you - like me – are made to lay back and take delight at the on-going helluva of cabals within UDJ. In my ‘joy’ at keeping myself abreast of UDJ’s tempest in a tea cup, I make sure that my daily diet of readings is rich in lean and eclectic comments and analysis on the unfolding debacle of UDJ. And it was during one such reading session of mine that I managed to unearth from underneath the flurry of internet activities on UDJ, an interview Professor Mesfin Woldemariam had given to Awramba Times. It was at that interview that Mesfin allowed himself to degenerate so low on the credibility-and-respect-scale of decent and civilised norm of behaviour governing politicians by not calibrating his responses to Awramba Times.
Calling a spade a spade can only be effective if, and only if, it is used by ordinary men and women. True, politicians are no different than you and I, but it is what they say, where they say it and how they say it which makes them a cut above the rest. When it comes to mavericks like Mesfin, public desire to vivisect their utterances becomes even greater. Mind you the Ethiopian political environment can at times turn ghoulish. Remember when one of Addis Ababa’s umpteen private newspapers had the brazen audacity of proclaiming: “Let Mesfin’s corpse rule over us!” Well, you might rightfully argue that was said during Mesfin’s honeymoon during the 2005 National Elections and times and circumstances have now changed. The point is though time and the fortunes of a one-time politically vibrant Kinijit have changed, Mesfin and his likes have not only remained where they were but are now busy performing ‘The March of the Politically-fossilized Crew’ to the Ethiopian public free of charge.
Gotcha professor!
In his interview with Awramba Times, Mesfin derided his alter egos at UDJ by calling them “Lolay.” Asked if his choice of Lolay was not offensive, Mesfin had no qualms in stating that “Lolay was Amharic for Cadre.” He then expounded his remark by commenting that a cadre is someone devoid of an independent mind; a yes man always at the beck and call of his masters. But is this right, or should we disregard it as one of those usual gaffes of a mentally-challenged professor. Or are Mesfin’s outbursts a clear sign of something much more life-threatening: a premature decay of verdant UDJ whose members are being guided by a crew of neanderthals. These are the sort of questions that naturally spring up the moment politicians from across the political spectrum allow themselves to puke not wisdom but dehumanizing vitriol.
You do not have to be a logophile, therefore, to come to the realisation that Lolay is English for factotum. And just because factotums are engaged in menial jobs to eke out their subsistence - something which obviously is despised by the profligate Professor - does not in any way mean that the Lolay has reduced himself into a robot. But the Professor’s choice of cadre as a euphemism for Lolay is not only wrong but mistaken. Cadre is, unfortunately, one Anglicised French word which has been abused so much today especially so by opponents of EPDRF opponents who have been using the word as one of their name calling methods in order to demean and harass EPDRF supporters. Anyone, who out of their own volition, have announced UDI (unilateral declaration of independence) by extricating themselves from the herd mentality which had placed gullible Ethiopians in the Diaspora in hoc to the toxic politics of hate, have been called EPDRF cadres. For instance, I have become a proud supporter of EPDRF out of my own volition having witnessed for myself the breathtaking changes that EPDRF had shepherded in the past 18 years to an Ethiopia which had for far too long remained under the shackles of oppression and abject poverty. This take of mine, however, imply not a flawless EPDRF. On the contrary, what’s good about EPDRF is its sense of humility in admitting its shortcomings, and its fervid desire for engaging the whole society in participatory democracy. But when critics of EPDRF refer to me as cadre, far from being offended by what they regard as name calling, I, instead, have been regarding it as a badge of honour. The reason is self evident. Though I have not undergone any EPDRF training – which is a must for cadres of any political party – and, therefore, do not qualify to be called a cadre, I feel elated when rubble-rousing toxic Diaspora politicians call me cadre. I believe I enjoy the same inalienable right as the rouble-rousers do to support the party of my choice. I am reminded here by my octogenarian relative’s counsel to me at the height of the 2005 Ethiopian National Election when the avatars of the politics of hate where having a field day: “To be born under the realm of the movers and shakers of the politics of hate is a vice, but to die in it a virtue.”
Now, in benchmarking Mesfin Wolde Mariam mindset against the hurly-burly of contemporary Ethiopian politics which has seen the ubiquitous word cadre being used arbitrarily, we would find out that Professor Mesfin is the epitome of a Lolay cum Cadre – “a factotum devoid of an independent mind; a yes man at the beck and call of his masters.” For someone like Mesfin who by saying nothing and writing nothing when the Derg unleashed their Reign of Terror on Ethiopians for 17 long years, and for him to only now wake up from his somnambulism and lecture us on “a man bereft of independent mind is a Lolay cum Cadre” must surely be the height of folly on the part of not only Mesfin – who is notorious for having a chip on his shoulder - but to the likes of Mesfin who have found comfort in cloud-cook-land.
Opposition politics in Ethiopia would, therefore, be all the more vibrant without braggadocio Mesfin W. Mariam. The sooner UDJ and Ethiopia are made to see the back of him, the quicker the tempo of pluralistic democracy in Ethiopia. Cio yegna Mesfin!